


that fragment of your song

by lady_krysis (saekhwa)



Category: Takers (2010)
Genre: Black Character(s), Canon Character of Color, Character(s) of Color, F/M, Female Character of Color, Inspired by Poetry, Male Character of Color, POV Character of Color, POV Female Character, Prompt Fic, Rare Fandoms, Rare Pairings, past emotional abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-20 23:29:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6029527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saekhwa/pseuds/lady_krysis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>So I sit here,</em>
  <br/>
  <em>gnawed down by the teeth</em>
  <br/>
  <em>of my nightmares.</em>
</p><p>~ Ai Ogawa</p>
            </blockquote>





	that fragment of your song

**Author's Note:**

> My dearest friend [Moriavis](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Moriavis), who was also kind enough to beta this fic, encouraged me to take a look at some abandoned work and dive into writing again.

Lilly screams and ducks behind the bar when the first bottle goes flying. It crashes into the display behind her. She covers her head. The splash of liquor on her hands drips down and soaks into her shirt. It makes her shiver, but it's the wet sound of a fist hitting a human body, looped on repeat in her mind, that has her shaking. 

She stays crouched and frozen and terrified until Jake's voice cuts through everything, sharper and louder than the clatter of chairs, the sharp oomph of someone hitting the floor. "AJ!"

God—AJ—who—

"Hey, I'm cool." AJ sort of laughs, out of breath. No one tells him this isn't a joke. No one tells him _this isn't funny_. "It's all cool, man. Problem taken care of."

"Go outside." Jake pauses. Lilly doesn't move. She holds her breath and waits. "Right _now_."

"Yeah, whatever. I needed the fresh air anyway."

"Jesse"—Lilly exhales and then clamps a hand over her mouth against a sob—"get this fool outta here."

"Sure, bro. You—"

Lilly doesn't hear the rest. Or maybe there's not a rest. In the pause, Jake is in front of her somehow, wrapping an arm around her, whispering, "Shh, shh, it's okay, baby. You hurt? Did he touch you?" Jake runs his fingers through her hair. "Come on. Can you get to your feet. Let me take a look at you. There we go. That's right."

~*~

Lilly stares at her hands. They aren't shaking anymore. 

No one wants to call the police, and Lilly … knows better than to try. But they're in front of her, badges prominent enough that the light catches them. 

"Ma'am?" Officer … 

She can't remember his name. He looks at her with a thin mouth and narrow brown eyes, and then he glances at his partner. They share a nod. 

"Is there anything else, ma'am?" the partner asks again. 

Lilly tightens her hands around the flaps of Jake's jacket, draped around her shoulders, heavy and warm. AJ's gone. Like a ghost. 

Lilly squeezes her eyes shut as a shudder runs through her, breath shaky when she inhales. The comparison is there, blooming like the sound of AJ— But Jake is here, hovering just out of sight, waiting. He's a foundation, where Ghost was …

When Lilly opens her eyes, she looks at the officer and shakes her head. "No." She breathes in to give the required, "Thank you," hoping the police don't come back and don't label her club as a problem. 

The officers nod and then give her the usual, "Call if you think of anything else." They don't mean it. 

After the officers are long gone, and the club is quiet, eventually, Lilly breathes her way back to, "I'm okay," and brushes Jake's jacket off her shoulders. 

"Lilly." His voice is soft as he extends a hand, but his lips thin when she meets his eyes. He takes back his jacket, careful not to touch her.

~*~

What Lilly can't talk about is Ghost. He's this … _thing_ stuck to the roof of her mouth. Chilled in her skin. She never thought he'd haunt her this way. 

The boys know … only what they know — the glittering necklaces, the rings, his kisses, the weight of his hand at the small of her back. What none of them could see were all the heavy ways Ghost could own her. She used to love the way he kissed and now only remembers the way he'd push her back, until her spine bowed, and she had to hold on to him to keep from falling. 

~*~

The mug slips from Lilly's nerveless fingers and crashes to the floor — coffee and porcelain spreading around her feet. 

"Shit. Lilly." AJ hops the counter, grabs her arm, pushes her, asking, "You okay? Sorry. Here." He squeezes her arm and then lowers into a crouch. "Let me just—" He squeezes her wrist. "Don't move, okay? I'll clean this up. Don't move."

Lilly grips the edge of the counter and doesn't move. Hardly breathes. "What are you—" AJ grabs the dishcloth off the counter and begins mopping up the coffee at her feet. "What are you doing here?"

AJ looks up at her, mouth tilted in a lopsided smile. "Came to say I'm sorry. About last night." He lowers his eyes, shakes his head, and plucks up a few of the larger shards. "And now this, too. Shit. Jake's gonna kill me."

Jake. _Jake_. 

Lilly scans the entranceway to the living room, tries to peek down the hall, looks at the windows, even at the walls for the door that she can't see but knows is there, somewhere behind AJ. Jake should be here. Jake should have _told her_. 

"It's—" Lilly pushes away from the counter, but AJ slides forward, holds her ankle, makes her freeze. 

"Hey, I got this— Shit, Lilly, you're bleeding."

Lilly blinks and looks down as AJ searches for something else only to take off his vest and press it to her ankle. All she feels is the coffee beneath her feet and then AJ's hand as he tells her, "Hold this here, okay? Just stay still. Let me find a band-aid and clean this up."

Lilly nods and keeps nodding, and somewhere in-between searching for an exit while bleeding into AJ's vest, AJ starts to whistle.

~*~

Ghost never hit her. But then ... he never had to.

~*~

Vision blurred, hands clenched into fists at her sides, Lilly whispers, "You should have told me."

"Baby," Jake says with a half-laugh, "it's AJ." Lilly digs her nails into her palms as Jake rubs his hands up and down her arms. AJ, who— "What is it Lilly? Talk to me, baby."

She presses her face into his shoulder, gives up her fists, and slips her arms around Jake's waist. She wants to be held, and he holds her, rubbing her back until her skin goes numb and she relinquishes her stiff stance to melt against him, burying her face into his shoulder, breathing in the scent of his cologne until she becomes numb to that, too. 

Then she exhales a shuddering breath. "He scares me."

~*~

Lilly still can't talk about Ghost — the trail of his knuckles down her cheek. 

"They ain't _never_ gonna see us comin'," he'd say before a big score. 

And she hadn't. Had she?

~*~

AJ isn't around. 

Lilly notices because the bar is quiet when she walks in. There's no sign of his fedora, the tilt of it on his head as crooked as his smile. She searches it out, over the bar, through the rooms, upstairs, between the kegs. 

When Jake comes in, he kisses her cheek, squeezes her elbow, and then goes to meet with the boys upstairs. 

As Lilly works, she searches for AJ around the corners, slowly, always gripping something as she peeks around. He'll leap out like a monster from the closet, suck her back into the dark. But he's gone. 

~*~

When Gordon had first told her, Lilly couldn't believe it. 

"You-you have to do something." She had shot to her feet, staring Gordon head on, the boldest she'd ever felt. "You have to break him out."

It had been stupid, but Gordon … He'd been patient. Soothing. He and John had explained the why and why not. 

"You can't see him, Lilly. I'm sorry," John had said. 

And Gordon, with his soft eyes and his nod of condolence, "It's for everyone's safety." 

They'd looked at each other when Lilly deflated, curling on the couch, eyes burning with unshed tears. 

"But don't worry," Gordon had said. "We'll take care of you."

And Lilly had truly believed the only person capable of that was Ghost. 

~*~

Like this — searching — weeks go by until Lilly stops straining to hear AJ's laugh, his fist, him. 

It's Sunday afternoon, and Lilly needs to check the stock, because she suspects the new bartender is skimming. 

AJ's at the piano. Lilly freezes. He runs his fingers across the keys, even though he knows how to play. Lilly stands at the corner of the bar when he happens to look up. Their eyes meet. His widen. The corner of his mouth tilts up, slopes down, and then he tips his hat to her, breaking eye contact. He closes the piano guard and vanishes. 

Lilly drops her shoulders, exhales, and closes her fingers around the bar to stop herself from telling him to _wait_. 

~*~

"We're takers," Gordon always said. "That's what we do."

And Lilly … Well, all she has to do is look up into the VIP lounge and see that she's one of those things.


End file.
